Sony Ericsson S500i

As we mentioned, the S500i is a very stylish and eye catching handset. It has a classy and sophisticated appearance, and there are even glowing LEDs along the sides whenever it's activated, making it appear extra sparkly. Not only is the S500i sleek, it's also compact, measuring only 3.9 inches by 1.8 inches by 0.5 inch and weighing about 3.3 ounces. The S500i is one of a few phones that Sony Ericsson has manufactured in a slider design, the others being the W580i and the W850i.

We like the slider mechanism quite a bit the movement was smooth yet sturdy, and didn't feel too loose at all. There is a slight sloping curl along the chin of the phone that you can use to push the phone open, and to close it, you can slide your thumb down on the raised toggle making the entire sliding process completely one handed. The Sony Ericsson S500i has a 2 megapixel camera on the back. The beauty of the S500i's display can't be denied.

It measures a little more than 2 inches diagonally and supports 262.000 colors and a lovely 240x320 pixel resolution. Colors popped from the screen and images showed up well.

You can adjust the phone's brightness and that's about it. Underneath the display is the navigation array, which consists of two skinny soft keys, a circular toggle with a central OK key, a Back key, a Clear key, a dedicated Web access key, plus a key dedicated to opening a My Shortcuts menu.

The circular toggle also doubles as four user defined shortcuts. Even though we found the toggle easy to use, we thought the surrounding keys felt a bit too small for our taste. This is especially true for the two soft keys, which are extremely skinny. Slide open the phone and you'll find a pretty decent number keypad. We were surprised that the keys weren't as flat as most keys on slider handsets.

There was noticeable textural difference between each tile like key, and the keys have a nice give when pressed. That said, the keypad did feel a tiny bit crowded and some users have complained about the keys cracking, though that was not a problem we encountered. There's a lovely white backlight emanating from the keypad when the phone is activated.

A slim volume control rests on the left spine, while the charger or headset jack is on the right. On top of the S500i is the memory stick slot plus the Power button. We wished the Power button was a bit larger, but it wasn't too difficult to press. Also, if you slide up the phone, you'll reveal a camera lens on the back of the phone. There's no flash or self portrait mirror, however.